Finding Funds: Options are increasing for entrepreneurs with the next great idea

Sometimes an innovative idea for a business or life-changing product connects with the resources to make it happen.

And sometimes they come together when the idea is pitched to a team of angel investors or venture capitalists.

Northwestern Nevada has a number of investor organizations springing up along with a rising spirit of entrepreneurship throughout the region.

In general, angel investors seek early-stage opportunities utilizing personal funds that provide high-risk seed capital. Venture capitalists, on the other hand, enter the mix further along in the process with more substantial capital to enable a startup to grow more quickly.

Angels embrace entrepreneurs but also need to be wary of those looking for easy money, P. Nick Brunson, chairman of Reno Angels, told the NNBW.

Reno Angels started in 2008, and Brunson has been with the organization for more than three years.

Many angel investors themselves found success as entrepreneurs, or through investments or other assets they wanted to put to good use.

Brunson earned his money by starting earlier than most.

“I’ve been working since I was 10 years old,” he said. He started investing when he was 20, had several good real estate investments, and now lives below his means.

Reno Angels members have diverse backgrounds: patents, engineering, technology, sales, marketing, business ownership and in the highest level of executive management.

On the venture capital side, Ozmen Ventures is a Reno-based VC organization launched 18 months ago as a byproduct of the success of Eren and Fatih Ozmen, owners of Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC), a global aerospace and defense company based in Sparks.

“It really started with the Ozmen Center for Entrepreneurship,” Kerem Ozmen, managing director of Ozmen Ventures and the son of SNC’s owners, said in a phone interview with the NNBW. “It’s a way for our family to support innovation.”